Page 82 of Fated In Forever
Stronger, his face ruddy with life, luminous from all those stolen life forces. Surrounded by an army of thralls, he ripped the rift open wider, darkness spilling out like midnight meeting the day. There had to be a hundred thralls around him, standing in perfect formation like some nightmarish flesh shield.
But they weren’t there for protection, not really.
No, even as I watched, they decayed in front of my eyes with every fresh blast of shadowy magic, as if Ravok was funneling his power directly from them. But for all their grotesqueness, I couldn’t take my eyes off the figure hunched at Ravok’s side.
Romulus.
Once powerful, now reduced to a broken shell, stringy hair hung in matted tangles around a crushed in, ruined face, his body a twisted, mangled mess. I didn’t know how he was still alive, and maybe he wasn’t, animated only by Ravok’s cruelty and hate.
Behind them, barely recognizable as the cruel, powerful men they'd once been, stood my uncles. Dante and Alistair were little more than walking corpses, their tattered flesh gray and rotting, their eyes sunken pits of darkness. Whatever bargain they'd made with Ravok had cost them everything, and much like my father, all I felt now was pity.
In the precious seconds I gathered my thoughts and brutalized body back together, Ravok noticed my arrival, his eyes widening, magic faltering, hands falling limply to his sides as he stared at me in shock.
Oh right, the last time he saw me, I was diving through a portal to the Underworld, barely a handful of days ago. He’d warned me I wouldn’t survive, so…
This probablywasa shock.
“Surprise.” I yelled through the churning haze of magic, because I didn’t know what else to do, really. Here I was, unarmed in the middle of a war, without a plan. Way to go, Evie.
“You,” Ravok’s voice carried clearly over the roar of the rift. “How can you be here?”
Then he growled, raised his hands higher and I watched in horror as more darkness spilled down over us, reeking ofprimordial rot, and a hundred other noxious smells I didn’t care to identify. To my left, Fiona's protective ward splintered like glass. Ancient ley line magic dusted the air with iridescent glitter, particles spinning inside the darkness like tiny jewels.
“Stop.” I commanded, my voice echoing, as if I stood at the bottom of a well. The power in my blood was singing now, responding to the darkness around me like a weapon drawn from its sheath.
Ravok turned to face me, and I saw that his eyes were completely black—not flecked with darkness like mine, but consumed entirely. “Stop?” His laugh was like the sound of breaking glass. “I'm only finishing what I started. You forced my hand, taking away my weapon to conquer this world. Now I’ll destroy it.”
Movement caught my eye, fear flashing hot and bright when I saw Nash crouched behind an overturned pillar, clutching a blade in one hand and his gun in the other. Behind him, Brendan was shielding Fiona, who looked spitting mad that all her hard work was being undone. When Nash pointed his gun at Ravok, I shook my head.
Steel and silver would do nothing against Ravok, not now.
And we’d need Brendan and Fiona to fix this mess, if we survived.
Ravok noticed my gaze and his smile turned predatory. “These are friends of yours, no?”
He raised his hand toward Nash, dark energy crackling between his fingers, and I responded without thinking.No.The shadows spilling from the rift responded to my will, all that raw, untamed darkness seeping from the wound in the sky akin to the shadows of the Underworld.
The veins in my hands darkened…no, myhandsdarkened, fingers turning midnight black as tendrils of shadow wreathed my fingertips.
These were inkier than Blake’s shadows, darkness gathered from all around me, from the writhing depths of the rift itself, coiling around my arms in serpentine ribbons of pure black, cold as ice against my skin, but somehow, I didn’t mind.
They felt oddly familiar, like I’d done this before…like I’dbeenhere before, fighting this very battle, and for one impossible moment, I got caught up in a stomach curdling sweep of déjà vu, reality slipping away.
Go. Kill him.
The shadows obeyed, forming misty spears that shot toward Ravok with deadly precision, while others spread like liquid night across the ground to tangle around his feet, thorny vines that held him in place for the killing blow. The air thickened with a haze of magic as he roared, swiping those spears away, sending me a look of pure hatred as one got through, stabbing him in the shoulder.
His eyes narrowed, studying the dark veins crawling up my arms, as if I’d dipped my hands in a vat of ink. “Impossible. You’re a fucking turned human,” he spat. “The Underworld should have eaten you alive, the second you stepped through that portal.”
“Nope.” I lifted my hands and wiggled my fingers, the rift above us groaning in response.
Huh. Interesting.
“As usual, you are wrong.” I retorted, cold power slipping through my veins like mercury. “Because here I am, alive and well and will you look at that…” I raised my hands and the choking haze rose off the Keep, as if I had the power to lift the entire sky.
“Huh. It looks like you’re not the only one who cancontrol the rift. And I don’t even have to suck the life out of a bunch of thralls to do it, you sick fucker.”
His face twisted with rage. “This is a trick. Where is Malachi? You’re siphoning off his power, that’s the only way this is possible.You are nothing.” Spit sprayed from his mouth, along with the vitriol.
